Memories are the only things that don’t change when everything else does. They will always be there. But it is important to live in the present because you can never relive your past.
Who is Giuseppe Tornatore
The Hollywood Interview
The Films
The Festival
Giuseppe Tornatore
Giuseppe Tornatore is an Italian film director and screenwriter. He is considered as one of the directors who brought critical acclaim back to Italian cinema. In a career spanning over 30 years he is best known for directing and writing drama films such as The Legend of 1900, Malèna, BaarÏa and The Best Offer.
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Festival Filmography
1986: The Professor (Il camorrista)
1988: Cinema Paradiso (Nuovo Cinema Paradiso)
1990: Everybody’s Fine (Stanno tutti bene)
1991: Especially on Sunday (segment “Il cane blu”)
1994: A Pure Formality (Una pura formalità)
1995: The Star Maker (L’uomo delle stelle)
1995: Lo schermo a tre punte (documentary)
1996: Ritratti d’autore: seconda serie documentary)
1998: The Legend of 1900
2000: Malèna
2006: The Unknown Woman (La sconosciuta)
2009: Baarìa
Life and Career
2013: The Best Offer
2016: The Correspondence
Born in Bagheria near Palermo, Tornatore developed an interest in acting and the theatre from at least the age of 16 and put on works by Luigi Pirandello and Eduardo De Filippo. He worked initially as a freelance photographer. Then, switching to cinema, he made his debut with Le minoranze etniche in Sicilia (The Ethnic Minorities in Sicily), a collaborative documentary film which won a Salerno Festival prize. He then worked for RAI before releasing his first full-length film, Il Camorrista, in 1985. This evoked a positive response from audience and critics alike and Tornatore was awarded the Silver Ribbon for best new director. Tornatore’s best known screen work was released in 1988: Nuovo Cinema Paradiso, a film narrating the life of a successful film director who has returned to his native town in Sicily for the funeral of his mentor. This obtained worldwide success and won an Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film. Subsequently Tornatore released several other films. In 2007 he won the Silver George for Best Director at the 29th Moscow International Film Festival for The Unknown Woman.
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The Hollywood Interview by Alex Simon
Philippe Noiret as Alfredo and Salvatore
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Cascio as Young Toto.
Giuseppe Tornatore’s Cinema Paradiso won the 1990 Best Foreign Film Oscar after setting box office records the previous year all over the world. Paradiso had a rough journey on its road to glory, however, with the then-32 year-old writer/director being forced to cut nearly 30 minutes from its original running time and facing critical excoriation and box office indifference upon its original release in Italy. It’s a fitting metaphor for a film that has become a classic tale about fate, perseverance, and destiny. Set in Sicily beginning in the years just after WW II to the late 1950s, and framed by modern-day flashbacks of a renowned film director (French actor/director Jacques Perrin) returning to his Sicilian town for the first time in 30 years, Tornatore’s hero (and alter-ego) is pint-sized Toto, who finds himself obsessed with the movies, and how they’re shown, when gruff but tender-hearted projectionist Alfredo (Philippe Noiret) takes him under his wing. Few films in history have articulated so simply and so poetically what it’s like to have a love affair with the movies. On the 25th anniversary of its North American release, Cinema Paradiso will be honored with a gala screening of a restored print, sponsored by Luce Cinecittà and Dolce & Gabbana, at Hollywood’s legendary Egyptian Theater, as part of AFI Fest, the evening of November 10, with Tornatore in attendance.
Giuseppe Tornatore sat down with Alex Simon during a stopover in Beverly Hills to look back on his classic film and the influence it carries to this day. Here’s what transpired:
I have to thank you for this movie. It’s one of my all-time favorites. As a kid, I was Toto. All I have to hear is Ennio Morricone’s theme from the film, and I start crying—and I’m not a crier. Giuseppe Tornatore: (laughs) Thank you. Words like that are very gratifying.
Let’s start at the beginning: how was Cinema Paradiso born? It’s a very long story to tell in an interview, so I’ll try to keep it simple. I got the initial idea in autumn of 1977. I was involved with the movie theaters in my village as a projectionist. That autumn, they closed one of the oldest theaters that dated back to the early 1930s. The owner decided to sell the building and they had to clear out all the furniture, and basically clean out and strip the building. He asked me to take anything I wanted. So I spent three or four days there, helping to clean it out…it was so dirty, so musty, the smell, the whole atmosphere was just so sad. It just came to me to take this atmosphere and put it into a story. For the next ten years, I made notes as ideas came to me. I interviewed many of the old projectionists in town for their stories, then I wrote the script. I always thought it was something I’d make after I made a name for myself, maybe as my fifth or sixth movie. After I finished my first film, my producer said to me “Don’t you have a passion project? Something you’re dying to make?” And I told him the entire story of Cinema Paradiso, right there. He was so touched that I decided to make it as my second movie.
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I remember reading after I’d seen it in 1989 that it was only your second feature. You were barely 30 years-old and it felt like a film made by a veteran director, not a kid. Yes, I shot it in the beginning of 1988. I was 31 years-old. When I got the Academy Award, I was 32. (laughs)
In terms of your own falling in love with film, was there one movie that did it for you, or a series of movies? I’ve never been able to give a good answer for this question, because I know I will always leave something out. I was lucky enough to grow up in Italy during the sixties and seventies and see such a huge variety of films, some masterpieces, some good, some terrible, that they were all an education for me. From the age of about seven to 26, I would see at least one movie per day in a theater. That was a time when you could see a new film by a master like Fellini, a giallo by someone like Dario Argento, or a B-movie exploitation piece of shit, but I learned something from them all. That’s what I tell young people who say they want to make movies: ‘See everything!’ If you just see the sort of movies that you think you will like, your sensibility will be very narrow.
It sounds like you just respect the art of filmmaking across the board. Yes, it’s something I learned as a projectionist: I don’t care if you’re showing a masterpiece or a piece of crap, you treat that film you’re showing with the utmost respect and make sure you’re delivering the sharpest image and best sound possible to the audience. You respect the filmmaker’s work, whether you like it or not.
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Do you view the two versions as separate films or the same film? That’s a tough one to answer. I love both, obviously, but I prefer the evolution of the plot in the longer version. I love at the end of the story that the character of Alfredo has this surprising dark side, that he is not so bright as he is in the shorter version. I also like the dichotomy in Salvatore’s life that he has huge professional success but no success in his personal life.
The way I interpreted Alfredo’s character in the longer version was that he was an artist as much as Toto/Salvatore was, and that his creation was who Salvatore became. He never would have become that successful filmmaker without Alfredo’s guidance. Yes, not only that, but in the long version Alfredo is like a big character in a Greek tragedy: he is a mortal who is able to determine the fate of another mortal. So we lost that when I had to cut the movie, as well as this beautiful and tragic love story between Salvatore and Elena. When I cut the movie, I felt like an animal whose leg was caught in a trap, and chose to chew his leg off and live, instead of being a prisoner.
Now you’re making me think of that scene in A Pure Formality. Was that scene actually a hidden reference to what you went through with Cinema Paradiso? (laughs) Could be.
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The Films
Cinema Paradiso Everybody’s Fine The Legend of 1900 Malèna The Best Offer
Cinema Paradiso
R | 2h 35min | Drama | 23 February 1990 (USA) Storyline
A famous film director remembers his childhood at the Cinema Paradiso where Alfredo, the projectionist, first brought about his love of films. He returns home to his Sicilian village for the first time after almost 30 years and is reminded of his first love, Elena, who disappeared from his life before he left for Rome.
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Living here day by day, you think it’s the center of the world. You believe nothing will ever change. When you come back, everything’s changed.
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Plot
In Rome, in the 1980s, famous Italian film director Salvatore Di Vita returns home late one evening, where his girlfriend sleepily tells him that his mother called to say someone named Alfredo has died. Salvatore obviously shies from committed relationships and has not been to his home village of Giancaldo, Sicily in 30 years. As his girlfriend asks him who Alfredo is, Salvatore flashes back to his childhood. It is a few years after World War II. Six-year-old Salvatore is the mischievous, intelligent son of a war widow. Nicknamed Toto, he discovers a love for films and spends every free moment at the movie house Cinema Paradiso. Although they initially start off on tense terms, he develops a friendship with the fatherly projectionist, Alfredo, who takes a shine to the young boy and often lets him watch movies from the projection booth. During the shows, the audience can be heard booing when there are missing sections, causing the films to suddenly jump, bypassing a critical romantic kiss or embrace. The local priest had ordered these sections censored, and the deleted scenes are piled on the projection room floor. At first, Alfredo considers Toto a bit of a pest, but eventually he teaches Salvatore to operate the film projector. The montage ends as the movie house catches fire (highly flammable nitrate film was in routine use at the time). Salvatore saves Alfredo’s life, but not before some film reels explode in Alfredo’s face, leaving him permanently blind. The Cinema Paradiso is rebuilt by a town citizen, Ciccio, who invests his football lottery winnings. Salvatore, yet a child, is hired as the new projectionist, as he is the only person who knows how to run the machines. About a decade later, Salvatore, now in high school, is still operating the projector at the Cinema Paradiso. His relationship with the blind Alfredo has strengthened, and Salvatore often looks to him for help advice that Alfredo often dispenses by quoting classic films. Salvatore has been experimenting with film, using a home movie camera, and he has met, and captured on film, Elena, daughter of a wealthy banker. Salvatore woos — and wins — Elena’s heart, only to lose her due to her father’s disapproval.
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Everybody’s Fine
PG-13 | 1h 58min | Drama | 31 May 1991 (USA) Storyline
Matteo Scuro is a retired Sicilian bureaucrat (responsible mainly for the writing of birth certificates), a widower with five children, all of whom live on the mainland and hold responsible jobs. He decides to surprise each with a visit and finds none as he imagined. The film is a veritable travelogue across contemporary Italy, as Matteo journeys to Naples, Rome, Florence, Milan, and Turin to search for each of his children; he even spends one night on the streets among the homeless. Scuro returns to Sicily, visits his wife’s grave, and reports with irony that “stanno tutti bene.”
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Plot
Matteo Scuro, a retired Sicilian bureaucrat and opera buff, has been stood up by his five adult children during the summer vacation, all of whom live in various cities on the Italian mainland with what he believes are responsible jobs. Despite their not visiting and the neighbours’ criticisms, he remains optimistic, considering that his children could not come because they are too busy. His children are named after popular opera characters, Tosca for Puccini’s Tosca, Canio for Leoncavallo’s Pagliacci, Norma for Bellini’s Norma, Guglielmo for Rossini’s Guglielmo Tell and Alvaro for Verdi’s La forza del destino. He decides to surprise each of them with a visit, traveling by train, and finds none of them as he imagined, with each of his children seeming to reflect the opera character after whom they were named. Matteo’s train journeys take him to Naples, Rome, Florence, Milan and Turin to search for each of his children; he even spends one night on the streets among the homeless. Before his arrival at each of their homes, each of his grown children scramble to put on a facade to cover up their personal failings: One daughter’s ex-husband temporarily moves back in with her and their child. A son who lost his University professorship temporarily moves back into his old office. Another daughter hides the fact that she works as a lingerie model, etc. Finally, after visiting all his children, Scuro returns to Sicily, visits his wife’s grave, and reports to her with irony that their children are all fine.
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The Legend of 1900
R | 2h 45min | Drama, Music, Romance | 28 October 1998 (Italy) Storyline
Shortly after the Second World War, Max, a transplanted American, visits an English pawn shop to sell his trumpet. The shopkeeper recognizes the tune Max plays as one on a wax master of an unreleased recording, discovered and restored from shards found in a piano salvaged from a cruise ship turned hospital ship, now slated for demolition. This chance discovery prompts a story from Max, which he relates both to the shopkeeper and later to the official responsible for the doomed vessel, for Max is a born storyteller. Though now down on his luck and disillusioned by his wartime experiences, the New Orleans-born Max was once an enthusiastic and gifted young jazz musician, whose longest gig was several years with the house band aboard the Virginian, a posh cruise ship. While gaining his sea legs, he was befriended by another young man, the pianist in the same band, whose long unlikely name was Danny Boodman T.D. Lemons 1900, though everyone just called him 1900, the year of his birth...
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Plot
The story is told in medias res as a series of flashbacks. Max Tooney, a musician, enters a secondhand music shop just before closing time, broke and badly in need of money. He has only a Conn trumpet, which he sells for less than he had hoped. Clearly torn at parting from his prized possession, he asks to play it one last time. The shopkeeper agrees, and as the musician plays, the shopkeeper immediately recognizes the song from a broken record matrix he found inside a recently acquired secondhand piano. He asks who the piece is by, and Max tells him the story of 1900. 1900 was found abandoned on the four stacker oceanliner SS Virginian, a baby in a box, and likely the son of poor immigrants from steerage. Danny, a coal-man from the boiler room, is determined to raise the boy as his own. He names the boy Danny Boodman T. D. Lemon 1900 (a combination of his own name, an advertisement found on the box and the year he was born) and hides him from the ship’s officers. Sadly, a few years later, Danny is killed in a workplace accident, and 1900 is forced to survive aboard the Virginian as an orphan. For many years, he travels back and forth across the Atlantic, keeping a low profile. The boy shows a particular gift for music and eventually grows up and joins the ship’s orchestra. He befriends Max in 1927, but never leaves the vessel. Apparently, the outside world is too “big” for his imagination at this point. But he stays current with outside musical trends as passengers explain to him a new music trend or style, and he immediately picks it up and starts playing it for them. His reputation as a pianist is so renowned that Jelly Roll Morton, of New Orleans jazz fame, on hearing of 1900’s skill comes aboard to challenge him to a piano duel. After hearing Jelly Roll Morton’s first tune 1900 plays a piece so simple and well known that the self-proclaimed inventor of jazz feels mocked. As Morton becomes more determined to display his talent, he plays an impressive improvised tune (“The Crave”) that brings tears to 1900’s eyes. 1900 calmly sits down at the piano and plays from memory the entire tune that Morton had just improvised. 1900’s playing fails to impress the crowd until he plays an original piece (“Enduring Movement”) of such virtuosity that the metal piano strings become hot enough for 1900 to light a cigarette. He hands it to Morton, who has lost the duel.
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A record producer, having heard of 1900’s prowess, brings a primitive recording apparatus aboard and cuts a demo record of a 1900 original composition. The recorded music is created by 1900 as he gazes at a woman (The Girl) who has just boarded and whom he finds attractive. When 1900 hears the recording, he takes the master, offended at the prospect of anyone hearing the music without his having performed it live. He then tries to give the master to The Girl who inspired it, but is unable to and breaks the matrix into pieces. The story flashes back to the mid-1940s periodically, as we see Max (who leaves the ship’s orchestra in 1933) trying to lure 1900 out of the now-deserted hull of the ship. Having served as a hospital ship and transport in World War II, she is scheduled to be scuttled and sunk far offshore. Max manages to get aboard the ship with the recording 1900 made long ago and plays it, hoping to attract 1900’s attention. When it does, Max attempts to convince 1900 to leave the ship. But he is too daunted by the size of the world. And feeling that his fate is tied to the ship, 1900 cannot bring himself to leave the only home he has known. In the end, the Virginian explodes and sinks, with 1900 still aboard. Max feels useless that he couldn’t save his friend.
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Malèna
R | 1h 49min | Drama, Romance, War | 2 February 2001 (USA) Storyline
On the day in 1940 that Italy enters the war, two things happen to the 12-year-old Renato: He gets his first bike, and he gets his first look at Malèna. She is a beautiful, silent outsider who’s moved to this Sicilian town to be with her husband, Nino. He promptly goes off to war, leaving her to the lustful eyes of the men and the sharp tongues of the women. During the next few years, as Renato grows toward manhood, he watches Malèna suffer and prove her mettle. He sees her loneliness, then grief when Nino is reported dead, the effects of slander on her relationship with her father, her poverty and search for work, and final humiliations. Will Renato learn courage from Malèna and stand up for her?
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Time has passed, and I have loved many women. And as they’ve held me close… and asked if I will remember them I’ve said, “Yes, I will remember you.” But the only one I’ve never forgotten is the one who never asked…
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Plot
The film begins in Sicily in 1940 during World War II just as Italy enters the war. A young boy, 12-year-old Renato, experiences three major events in one day: First, Italy goes to war; second, he gets a new bike; and third, he first sees the beautiful lady, Malena. Malena’s husband, Nino Scordia, has been taken away to fight in Africa and Malena is left alone with her father, an elderly and almost-deaf man. Malena tries to cope with her loneliness, as the town she has moved to tries to deal with this beautiful woman who gets the attention of all the local men, including Renato. However, in spite of the gossip, she continues to be faithful to her husband. Renato becomes obsessed with Malena and starts fantasizing about her. His fantasies become increasingly elaborate and he becomes obsessed with the shy young woman, peeping in her window often as she waits sadly for her beloved husband to return. Renato eventually steals Malena’s underwear and begins to fantasize about her in bed, to the horror of his parents. They do everything to stop his behavior, but it is all in vain. Malena soon receives word that her husband has been killed and her grief consumes her. Renato continues to watch Malena as she suffers from grief. Malena is shunned by the townspeople who begin to believe the worst about her, simply because of her beauty. Women spread terrible rumors and men encourage the rumors by lurking around the poor widow, who does nothing to defend herself; she just wants to be left alone. She visits her father regularly and helps him with his chores, but when a slanderous letter reaches his hands, their relationship suffers a catastrophic blow. Things only get worse when the wife of the local dentist takes Malena to court, accusing her of having an affair with her husband, but Malena is acquitted. The Court is told that Malena is being harassed for being beautiful, as other ladies feel insecure and threatened by her. The only man that the lonely and sad Malena has a romance with, an army officer, is sent away after saying he and Malena were “just friends”. The betrayal cuts deeply, but Malena says nothing to condemn the officer. After her acquittal, Malena’s lawyer Centorbi comes to her home and asks for a dance and during the dance, using her unpaid legal fee as leverage, rapes her while Renato peeps in from outside her house. Renato increasingly sees himself as Malena’s protector, but he does not even realize that his views of her are little better than those of the townspeople. While he asks God to protect her and personally performs little acts of vengeance against those who slander Malena, he takes no time to realize how Malena herself feels. He even rationalizes the rape as a choice Malena made to pay her legal fee.
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Meanwhile, the war reaches Sicily and the town is bombed. Malena’s father dies and she is left completely alone. Desperate for food, Malena’s poverty finally forces her to become a prostitute. She cuts off her long black hair and begins to dress provocatively. When the German army comes to town, Malena gives herself to Germans as well. The townspeople smugly watch as she is forced into the role of whore; they are almost more content now than when she was a virtuous young wife. Renato sees her in the company of two German officers and faints. His mother and the older ladies think that he has been possessed and take him to church for an exorcism. His father, however, takes him to a brothel; Renato has sex with one of the prostitutes while fantasizing that she is Malena. As Sicily is liberated by the Americans in 1943, the women gather and publicly beat and humiliate Malena viciously, forcefully shaving her hair and stripping her in the square. A depressed Malena leaves for Messina to escape further persecution. A few days later, Nino Scordia, Malena’s husband, returns looking for her, to the shock of all the residents. He finds his house occupied by people displaced by the war and nobody willing to tell him what became of his wife. Renato tells him through an anonymous letter about Malena’s whereabouts, the fact that she always loved only him, and the lie in all the rumors about her cheating. Nino goes to Messina to find her and, a year later, they are seen walking down the street, Nino proudly arm-in-arm with his still-beautiful wife. The villagers, especially the women, astonished at her courage, begin to talk to “Signora Scordia” with respect. Though still beautiful, they think of her as no threat, claiming that she has wrinkles near her eyes and has put on some weight. Malena, however, is as shy as ever and wary of the attention after her experiences. In the last scene near the beach, Renato helps her pick up some oranges that had dropped from her shopping bag. Afterwards, he wishes her “Buona fortuna, Signora Malena” (good luck, Mrs. Malena) and rides off on his bicycle, looking back at her for a final time, as she walks away. This is the first and only time they speak to each other in the movie. As this final scene fades out, an adult Renato’s voice-over reflects that he has not forgotten Malena, even after the passage of so many years. He says, according to the English subtitles, “Time has passed and I have loved many women. And as they’ve held me close and asked if I will remember them, I believed in my heart that I would. But the only one I’ve never forgotten is the one who never asked ... Malena”
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The Best Offer
R | 2h 11min | Crime, Drama, Mystery | 1 January 2014 (USA) Storyline
In the world of high-end art auctions and antiques, Virgil Oldman is an elderly and esteemed but eccentric genius art-expert, known and appreciated by the world. Oldman is hired by a solitary young heiress, Claire Ibbetson, to auction off the large collection of art and antiques left to her by her parents. For some reason, Claire always refuses to be seen in person. Robert aids Oldman in restoring and reassembling some odd mechanical parts he finds amongst Claire’s belongings, while also giving him advice on how to befriend her and deal with his feelings towards her. Also a friend of Oldman, Billy Whistler helps him to acquire a secret private collection of master paintings.
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Emotions are like work of art. They can be forged they seem just like the original but they are forgery.
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Plot
The film tells a story of love and deceit, set in Europe (Trieste, Bolzano, Fidenza, Rome, Milan, Merano, Vienna, Prague) in the world of high-end art auctions and antiques. The story revolves around Virgil Oldman (Geoffrey Rush), an aging and esteemed, but somewhat eccentric, managing director of an auction house. Oldman is hired by a reclusive young heiress, Claire Ibbetson (Sylvia Hoeks), to auction off the large collection of art and antiques left to her by her parents. Claire always refuses to be seen in person, obviously suffering from severe agoraphobia and never leaving her room. Soon enough Virgil, a life-long bachelor, understands that he has fallen in love with her. An astute young artificer, Robert (Jim Sturgess), aids Oldman in restoring and reassembling some odd mechanical parts that he finds amongst Claire’s belongings, while also giving him advice on how to befriend her, and how to deal with his feelings towards her. Oldman’s poise and prestige are counterpointed by an ongoing scam whereby his friend Billy Whistler (Donald Sutherland) helps him acquire a large private collection of master paintings. Oldman eventually begins a relationship with Ibbetson, compromising his work. At the peak of the relationship, Claire overcomes her fear of the outside world and goes on to live with Virgil, who trusts the fragile Claire enough to show her his secret priceless collection of portraits. Virgil returns home one day to find that his entire collection and Claire are gone, realising that he was just a part of an elaborate fraud. After months of recovering from the ultimate betrayal, Virgil takes a trip to Prague, where he spends time sitting in a restaurant that Claire had once suggested, waiting alone at a table.
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The Festival
Schedule
Cinema Paradiso August
20
10:30 am
Malèna August
23
Everybody’s Fine August
21
10:30 am
The Best Offer
10:30 am
August
23
2:30 pm
The Legend of 1900 August
22
10:30 am
Location
Vogue Theatre One of the city’s oldest operating cinemas, showcasing classic & current films on a single screen. Address: 3290 Sacramento St, San Francisco, CA 94115 Phone:(415) 346-2228
Baker St
Lyan St
Baker St
Washington St
Lyan St
Presidio Ave
Jackson St
Clay St
Vogue Theatre Sacramento St Walnut St
Laurel t St California St
Presidio Ave Pine St
Bush St